


Made of Love

by BlueMinuet



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), 弱虫ペダル | Yowamushi Pedal
Genre: M/M, Mentions of Death, Mentions of War, Mild Language, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-20 04:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4774151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueMinuet/pseuds/BlueMinuet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teshima and Aoyagi are gem warriors that have been fused for centuries. When they’re forcibly separated, Teshima tries to figure out how to get out of the situation while reflecting on how things ended up the way they are. </p>
<p>A Steven Universe fusion fic for Doxy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Made of Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [doxian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doxian/gifts).



> There’s definitely some really self-indulgent role-casting here, since the roles don’t follow exactly as SU canon. Also, some of the mechanics are hinted to be slightly different than SU canon, just because plot reasons… Anywho, this sure is a thing a wrote...
> 
> Original SASO post is [here](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/7182.html?thread=2680590#cmt2680590).

Teshima pounds on the forcefield before him, the hand that lacks a gem curled into a fist and battering uselessly against the sickly yellow glow of the electronic prison wall. Every punch hits the field as if it were stolid brick, with the added effect of an electronic sting singing through his arm, slicing down to his core. 

“If I get out of here—” he says, but stops just as quickly. He said it aloud and that feels… wrong. The sound of his voice is wrong. Because it’s _his_ voice. Not _their_ voice. 

He pounds the forcefield again. “When I get out of here,” he says again, amending slightly. “I’m going to…” He trails off, expecting a different voice to either interrupt or pick up where he left off. The silence is odd and makes his throat threaten to close up. 

“I’ll kill them,” Teshima decides.

* * *

The odds were always against them. Teshima and Aoyagi had discussed it at length as the ship bore down on the coast. Of course, no one heard the conversation. When you’re fused, everything is conversation. Sometimes it’s rapid fire, words blending together. You can practically hear one another’s thoughts, if you dare to. When you’re that close, long discussions can take just seconds to get to a conclusion. 

That’s how the two of them came to the conclusion, more or less, that they were fucked. 

Teshima couldn’t have said if it was he that balled their fists or Aoyagi. Maybe it was both. When the will is united, the answer is ‘both’ sometimes more often than not. 

“We won’t give an inch,” they both say together, letting the words flow aloud from their mouth. “No matter what. If they want a fight, we’ll give it to them right here.” 

Makishima looks at them, his eyes filled with worry. But ultimately he nods, sword spun in his hand. 

“You won’t get any argument from me,” Naruko chuckles at their other side. “We’ll crush these bastards easily. Right, old man?” 

“I hope you aren’t counting me out.” They turn to see Imaizumi there. 

Makishima lets out the sigh that Teshima and Aoyagi both reserved to their private conversation. “We kind of were hoping that you would actually listen when we said to stay behind.” 

“Too late,” Teshima and Aoyagi comment together. 

Naruko, unnecessarily, cracks his knuckles. “Looks like Hotshot’s coming along for the ride.”

* * *

Teshima rocks back until he hits the back wall of the cell and slumps into it. The forcefield is a lost cause, he decides. But he always really knew that, if he was honest with himself. But punching things and screaming himself hoarse was better than the alternative. 

He looks down at his hands. The one without the gem is scorched from the forcefield. Not that it matters. His body is made of light; it’ll fix itself. But the look of the hand without a gem firmly in the palm… Before, he was filled with rage, but now the sight just makes him feel empty. Incomplete. 

His other hand holds his own gem. Even that feels wrong without Aoyagi’s presence, though. 

“Hey!” 

Teshima looks up at the voice. There’s someone standing at the cell door, and at first Teshima stiffens, ready for a fight with his jailers. But then he realizes it’s just a human. 

“Are you okay?” the human asks. 

Teshima realizes he knows this one. A friend of Imaizumi’s, if Imaizumi can be said to have friends. “Onoda,” he says, without thinking about it. 

Onoda’s eyes widen. “How did you know my name?” When Teshima says nothing, Onoda squints at him. He soon after smiles, and Teshima briefly wonders if he gets it. “Oh, of course! You’re a gem. You probably have mind reading powers or future vision or something!” 

Teshima shouts and punches the wall, making Onoda jump slightly. “No, I do _not_ have future vision!” If only, he mentally adds. 

“Oh, well, I’m sorry,” Onoda says, clearly confused, but sympathetic. “Anyway, I need to save my friends. Do you know of a way to get out of those cells?” 

Teshima glares at him. “If I knew of a way, I wouldn’t be in here, would I?”

“I guess not,” Onoda says, thinking about it. “Well, that’s okay. I don’t suppose you know where I can find any of the other gems that are being held here? Maybe I can find a way to get all of you out.”

“Other gems…” Teshima groans. “Listen, don’t do that. Just get out of here! It’s obviously not safe for you here.” 

Onoda makes an unsure noise. “It should be fine. I have a sword,” he says, gesturing with the purple tinted blade. 

Teshima stares at the sword. He leans forward to get a better look down the hall, on a hunch. He sees exactly what he expects to, and sighs. “I don’t suppose you could have led with the fact that you have a giant snake with you?” 

Said snake is lazily curling up in the hallway, bored with the lack of apparent action taking place. 

“Yeah,” Onoda says slowly. “But Snake isn’t usually helpful for anything other than… showing up for magical destiny reasons…” 

“Fine,” Teshima says. “But just find Imaizumi and get out of here!” 

“You know Imai–” Onoda stops mid-sentence at Teshima’s glare. “Okay. Alright, I’ll find him. And I’ll get you out too, if I can.” 

“You don’t have to…” He trails off as Onoda is already running down the hall. After a moment, the snake lazily slithers after him. 

Teshima sighs. “Our heroes for the night…” 

No one laughs at his snark, and it only makes him feel worse.

* * *

Thousands of years ago, in a weapon littered field, Teshima punches a tree. 

“It’ll be alright,” comes Aoyagi’s quiet tone.

“It’s not alright,” Teshima growls, punching the tree again. It’s done nothing wrong, but it’s here, and Teshima has a massive lack of anything better to do than pummeling innocent plant life. “Our friends are out there dying,” he whispers. 

“I know.” 

“And we’re here.” 

“I know that too.” 

“Then why aren’t you angry about it?” Teshima demands whirling around at him. 

Aoyagi’s eye meets Teshima's glare, but he looks away just as quickly. He’s sitting on the ground, knees drawn up to his chest. They’re supposed to be holding things down, making sure their enemies don’t retake the Kindergarden, but Aoyagi isn’t ready for an attack. He knows it won’t come. Both of them know this is busy work. Anyone could have done this job. They were picked for it for a reason. 

“I am,” Aoyagi says calmly, and Teshima wants to shout that he doesn’t _sound_ angry. But somehow, Teshima knows that he’s telling the truth. 

Teshima sighs, and leans against the tree. “We’re just not good enough. Is that it?” 

“That’s not what Kinjou said.” 

“He didn’t have to say it.” 

Aoyagi nods. “You’re right. We’re not.” 

Teshima looks up, shocked. He knew this was a pity party he was getting into but he didn’t expect Aoyagi to be so direct about it. 

“But what if we are good enough,” Aoyagi continues. “Together.” 

“Together?” Teshima meets Aoyagi’s eye and freezes. “Wait. You mean. Fusion?” 

Aoyagi nods. “We’ve done it before.” 

“Not just the two of us though,” Teshima says. 

“It’s basically the same thing.” 

“Not really,” Teshima says. “Besides, fusion is serious magic.”

“And this is serious,” Aoyagi counters. “We’re at war. And our friends' lives are at stake. If we can’t protect them alone…” 

“Then maybe together,” Teshima continues. He looked down at his own gem, before clutching his fingers around it. It was tempting, to be sure. “But what you’re talking about. It wouldn’t just be fusing during the most dangerous times. If we’re going to be any use like that, we’d have to be fused… all the time. For the rest of the war. Or… longer.”

Aoyagi nods. 

Teshima looks up. “Remember when we fused with the others? It was… chaos.” Teshima can still hear all of the voices in his head, speaking together, blending and clashing like breaking waves on the shore.

“But if it was just us,” Aoyagi says. “The two of us. We could control it. We wouldn’t become that unstable.” 

“But we could still lose ourselves in the fusion.” 

“So what?” 

It’s like a punch to Teshima’s chest. The prospect of fusing forever, possibly losing himself to it. Becoming something… someone else. It’s terrifying. But when he weighs it against the way things are now; the feeling of being useless, of watching his friends march off into battle without him. It’s… tempting. 

Aoyagi stands and holds out his hand, the one with the gem planted neatly in the palm, the mirror of Teshima’s. 

“Fuse with me, Teshima,” he says. “And we’ll never have to feel useless again.” 

Teshima reaches out, slightly nervous, but takes his hand firmly. Their gems clink together, but not unpleasantly so. He nods. “Let’s do this. Show me how you dance, Aoyagi.”

* * *

Teshima hears footfalls in the corridor. He doesn’t care. Hopefully, Onoda managed to free Imaizumi, and they're taking the chance to run. Worst case, it’s his jailers, but he hardly has it in him to care if they come to torture him. 

“He was around here, somewhere,” a voice says, and Teshima groans when he recognizes it as Onoda. 

“Ah, over here!” Onoda says. 

“Didn’t I tell you to—” Teshima stops when Imaizumi steps into view. “Leave. I said leave,” he continues. “I don’t know how you got out, but you’re wasting time.” 

“He’s right,” Imaizumi says. “We still need to find the other crystal gems. If this guy doesn’t want to be rescued, then fine.” 

“No,” Teshima sighs. “Stop rescuing people and save yourselves.” 

“But he’s really nice, Imaizumi, and we’re already here,” Onoda argues. “Come on, let’s get him out.” 

Imaizumi groans just as Teshima tries to figure out why Onoda thinks he’s nice. He doesn’t have time to think about it much before Imaizumi is reaching out to the forcefield. 

“Wait! Stop! You’ll—” 

Imaizumi’s hand passes through the forcefield just fine, carving out a path through the barrier as if he were simply pulling back a curtain. 

“Just get out of there already,” Imaizumi says with a grimace. 

Teshima quickly ducks through, shocked to be out. He takes stock. Imaizumi looks undamaged, if a bit perturbed. Onoda is beaming brightly, sword still in hand. The snake is nowhere to be found, but Teshima is sure it will show up on its own time. 

“Alright, we need to find Aoyagi,” Teshima says. 

“No, we need to find _our_ friends,” Imaizumi insists. 

“Well, I didn’t see any of the other crystal gems,” Onoda says. “But I did see this other gem. He had hair like…” Onoda trails off, pulling his hand from his hair and over his eye, mimicking long bangs. 

“That’s Aoyagi!” Teshima says. “Where is he?” 

“That way,” Onoda says, pointing. 

Teshima takes off, and hears the sounds of Imaizumi and Onoda chasing and bickering after him. 

“This is a waste of time,” Imaizumi says. 

“Well, once we find his friend, we’ll have four people, right?” Onoda says. “That’ll help us find the others. We’ll have four sets of eyes looking for stuff.” 

Teshima doesn’t feel like pausing to correct Onoda’s numbers. 

They all stop when the sound of footsteps fill the corridor. Teshima half wants to keep running, but just then he feels Onoda grab the back of his shirt and pull him into an empty side hall. Imaizumi had already ducked the other way and a patrol of gems pass between them. Luckily, the guards all seem quite focused, and unaccustomed to checking dark corners for interlopers.

Onoda makes a few hand gestures to Imaizumi, and after a moment they seemed to click as directions. Imaizumi nods and sends back a few gestures of his own before slinking off down his hallway in the direction Onoda had gestured. 

“I pointed out where your friend is,” Onoda whispers so quietly that Teshima can barely hear it over the patrolling gems. “We’ll have to go around to meet up with him though.” 

Teshima nods. “Alright, let’s go.”

* * *

Makishima stares blankly at them. “Who… are you?” 

They squirm a bit nervously. “Come on, Makishima. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me. That can really hurt a guy’s feelings, you know.” 

Makishima purses his lips at this, confused. 

Kinjou smiles. “I believe our friends Teshima and Aoyagi have gotten up to some interesting endeavors while we’ve been gone.” 

Teshima and Aoyagi nod, as one. “We… Next time you go on a mission. We can help. We want to prove that to you, Kinjou.” 

“This is unbelievable,” Makishima says. “A fusion outside of battle. Fused at all times? What… what would we even call them? Him?” 

Kinjou smiles once again, turning to them. “A good question. Tell us, who are you?” 

This time, the words aren’t accusing. They’re gently probing. Kinjou honestly wants to know. 

“We… I… I’m a fusion,” they finally say, their will clicking into place as one. “And I’m a crystal gem. I’m…”

* * *

When they loop back the long way, Teshima and Onoda find themselves in a wide open space. But Teshima doesn’t stop to take stock. Instead, only one thing catches his eyes. “Aoyagi!” 

The other gem is standing on the opposite side of the room, alongside Imaizumi. Before anything can be said, they’ve met in the middle. There’s so much Teshima wants to say, to ask, but when Aoyagi looks at him, he knows none of it matters. He can say it later. 

They don’t even need to dance anymore. The minute Aoyagi is in his arms, Teshima can feel the power rising up in him, their gems calling out for each other. He hardly has time to steal a kiss before they're spinning in a mass of light. 

When he solidifies into a form, he is no longer two. He’s one. And he’s back. He barks out a bellowing laugh that fills the halls, clenching his massive fists with joy. 

Imaizumi and Onoda are staring at him. 

Imaizumi is the first to speak. “... Tadokoro…” 

“You’re a fusion,” Onoda breaths. 

Tadokoro laughs again. “That’s right. Thanks for helping me pull myself together.” 

Imaizumi flounders. “I’m…” 

The echoing sound of running fills the halls again. Tadokoro turns. “No time,” he says. “You two go find Makishima and Naruko. I’ll hold them off.”

“Are you sure?” Imaizumi says. 

“We could help you,” Onoda says, gripping his sword. 

“You don’t have to take them alone,” Imaizumi adds. 

Tadokoro turns back to them and grins. “You kids just don’t pay attention, do you? Of course I can’t take them alone.” He looks down at his hands, each one with a gem placed perfectly in the center of the palm. “But I’m not alone.” 

Imaizumi frowns. “But…” 

Tadokoro cuts him off, patting him on the back hard enough to see stars, as well as a few other things. “Go. Get Makishima and Naruko. I’ll meet up with you as soon as I’m done.” 

Imaizumi nods, and Onoda reluctantly follows as Imaizumi jogs off back towards the prison block. Tadokoro turns back towards the oncoming guards. “Come get me.”

* * *

Thousands of years ago, in a field far away, Teshima laughs as he kisses Aoyagi’s forehead. 

“We don’t have to be fused all the time,” Aoyagi says, in a voice barely louder than a whisper. 

“Yeah, we do,” Teshima says. 

“Being weak doesn’t matter anymore,” Aoyagi says. 

Teshima shakes his head. “It’s not about being weak.” he says. “Not anymore. Now… I never want to be lonely again.” 

Aoyagi stares at him a moment before laughing.

“What?” Teshima demands. 

“You’re so corny…” 

Teshima laughs too, pulling him close. Their foreheads touch and they laugh together until their laughs meld into one cheerfully belly laugh. 

“I know,” Tadokoro says.


End file.
